The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1887-03-17
Scientific Miscellany.
repaired specially for THE v1Re1S1As.

Some months ago Prof. V, G. Vaughan
of samples of ice cream which bad poison
ed several different grouys of people. In
it he describes an organic poison which he
isolated from the ice cream. and which,
when taken by himself and pupils. caused
the same symptoms as the people eating
the cream were affected with. He called
this poisonous principle tyr Jtopicon. The
Western Druggist thinks the poisoning was
caused by the vanilla flavoring, for in one
case where the cream was made from the
same custard, only that favored with va
nilla showed poisonous qualities, the one
in which lemon was used being without
harmful effect.
A German chemist has invented a bullet
composed of an anaesthetic enclosed in
brittle envelope. When soldier is hit
with one of these bullets, he is covered
with the anaesthetic which renders him
unconscious for twenty-four hours. In
that condition he can easily be made
prisoner and carried to the rear.
Electric stoves are being introduced in
France. The principle upon which they
work is the heating of wires by their rssis-
tence to the passage of the electrical cur
rent. Currents of air passing.ov the red
hot electrically heated wires, carry the
heat to the different parts of the room.
A NEW SOURCE OF SUeAR.-Some years
ago student of the Johns Hopkins Uni
| versity working in the laboratory Of that
Institution under the direction of Prof. Ira
Remsen, discovered in the course of his
work on coal tar a very sweet substance
which Remsen called saccharine. 1t pos
sesses 23O times the sweetening power of
I common cane sugar, one part by weight
| giving a distinctly sweet taste to 10000
parts of water. BY adding one part of
saccharine to from 1000 to 1000 parts of
glucose, "dextro- saccharine" is formed,
which can hardly be distinguished in taste
from sugar. One Of it's most useful app IL
cations will be to add it as sweetener to
bitter medicines. such as quinine, the Bit.
ter taste Of which is completely concealed
by the sweetness of the saccharine. FAIL
berg, the student who first obtained it,
took out a patent on it without consulting
Prof. Remsen, and hopes to make for
tune from it, but it is yet a matter of
doubt whether it can be prepared eco
nomically enough to compete with sugar.
1t is said that it can be produced at $12 per
pound
Two Italian physicians found that frogs
could be Kept many days on solution of
saccharine in water without showing any
signs of discomfort, AS much as seven
ty-fve grains were given to dogs daily for
several days, without any bad effects, and
without any change in the weight of the
body, finally similar experiments upon
man by another investigation sustained
these results.
One of the latest suggestions in the
way of Notifications, is the plan of Sir
Henry Bessemer to cast the fort of one
solid piece of steel Immediately upon the
site. The method of accomplishing this
would be to have mould made of brick
held together by iron bars, and lined with
fire-clay.
-Four twenty ton converters giving each
eighteen charges day, with the accom-
panying cupolas for melting the pig iron
would be required. This would be sufi-
cient to give slow but continuous flow of
steel into the mould, and the result would
be a fort incapable of destruction by ex-
listing artillery.
The government of Queensland. Aus
tralia is building rabbit-proof wire fence
! a'ong the New South Wales boundry to
protect itself against the inroad of rabbits
from the latter colony. The fence will ex.
tend northward along the boundry of South
Australia for one hundred miles. Already
1850 miles Of fencing wire. and about $50
miles of wire netting have been ordered
from England.